[Breakdown by sport is just not feasible for the annual total given the persistent bugs in Garmin Connect and the refusal of competitors to even offer such a breakdown.]

[November breakdown is in accurate due to bugs. "Cycling" activities were skating. "Running" activities were actually hiking]

Aside from the month just finished, 2015 was a not a bad year. More miles, faster, and yet lower heart rate. Of course, I could still want for more. A2A was the best since 2008 but well short of being good. Duluth was quite respectable but did not threaten my 2008 finish in the least.

I'm not even going to guess what 2016 will be like. Too many variables and a less stellar skating year is a price I am willing to pay to fix other things.

Last edited by ese002; January 1st, 2016 at 03:30 AM.
Reason: typo in title

Holy Moly ese002! Those numbers are amazing! And me seeing them is good motivation, esp being 1/1/16. I plan to start tracking all my skating miles plus my running with runkeeper. Though I'll never hit half of that 5700 miles you logged, it'll still be good to see progress and results.

Despite all the turmoil, the mileage differed by barely 1%. A little slower. No morning commute after January. The implied time pressure always makes for faster skates. Also fewer races but for all the attention given to them, races miles are always dwarfed by training and even recreational miles.

So December was mostly a washout. Somehow the last two days out of three were good skating weather.

The Google distance from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon listed at 3186.0 from one city center to the other city center. But from the closest municipal BORDER of each city - only 3170 miles. This made it possible for me to get 38 miles in two days and still say I skated Portland to Portland. So I got that number plus 9 more. When I got home and uploaded to Strava, their interpretation of my 2017 miles is 3186.0. That is 3186-point-ZERO! Precisely the miles I needed to both city centers according to Google Maps!

Here is the monthly/daily breakdown for 2017. I'm very happy with it.

For a nicer graphic and map of my "virtual" cross-country skate, go to THIS post.

2017 was complicated and busy. I started the year unemployed and struggling to find dry roads to skate while enduring the wettest winter in 20 years. I ended the year fully employed and skating 11 miles to work each way adding up the miles (and time) in a major way.
In between, I botched the start of Barbary Coast and skipped Rolliní on the River to see the total eclipse of the Sun. I got rained on for the second consecutive Northshore Inline Marathon. I might have placed if not for Garmin troubles and letting them distract me from the race going on around me. I took a pass on A2A on account of skills issues and ended up missing out a hurricane. Iím kind of glad. Saguaro Sunrise was fun but very rough. Altogether, racing in 2017 was memorable but not particularly inspiring.

Finding good virtual travel mapping for the year past was tricky. Skate miles came in 5231. Thatís more than Anchorage to Key West but not quite Prudhoe Bay to Key West. I settled on Prudhoe Bay to Jensen Beach. It is still coast to coast. Arctic Ocean to Atlantic.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Prud...556453!1m0!3e0
If skate miles bent the coast to coast meme, total miles just plain broke it. 6,063.84 miles exceeds any optimal driving route with end points in the USA by a good margin. But itís still kind of cool to have virtually skated, biked and hiked from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Kinchil Ė Celestun, a little Mexican town on the YucatŠn Peninsula facing the South side of Gulf of Mexico. A little obscure but it still tundra to tropics.

Compared to 2016, I actually skated fewer miles and cycled more. Many things changed but the standouts are jobs and weather. 2016 was a drought year. Early 2017 was very very wet. I did numerous workout rides, something Iíve hardly ever done since putting on skates in 1997 and I did it because it was persistently too wet to skate. I was mostly employed in 2017 vs mostly not in 2016. I biked rather than skated to work on days when I needed the extra carrying capacity.

This will not extend much into 2018. Iím going to cut back on my self-powered commutes. I like to do it but the 21 mile round trip just takes too long and since I tend to work long hours it doesnít leave much time for anything else. I aim to go from a nominal 3-4 skate commutes + 1 bike commute to a steady two skate commutes per week. I will probably only bike when it rains. Totals wonít hit 6000. Skate miles may struggle to reach 4000. And that is fine. The may be more productive and interesting miles.

Iím already signed up Northshore, A2A, and Rolliní on the River. I will probably repeat Saguaro Sunrise. Iím strongly considering Apostle Islands and may even do Battle of Bear Creak. I hate travelling for less than a marathon distance but the April date has a lot of appeal.

How many sets of wheels you burn through? Should be a "Strava" category for that too.

Somewhere between one and two, closer to one. The XF's I changed out in July, went on the previous September. The XXF's I put on in July are still going strong. That's about 2200 miles.

I prioritize durable (generally harder) wheels, rotate often and wear them long. I usually wear off at least 5mm before I bin wheels. Peculiarities in my stride and no t-stops mean my wheels flatten rather than becoming pointed or beveled.

In better years, every-day wheels get binned when race wheels get demoted rather than when they are fully worn out. Wheels are seldom race-worthy after three competitions. But the last couple of years have been short on races so the wear period has stretched out. The shock band was plainly visible in my MPC Black Magic XFirm's at the end.

I use Labeda Asphalt wheels, 85A. My skates use 80s up front and rear, 76 in the middle. I never rocker them for distance of course, and most of my freestyle slalom sessions are inside on a wood floor = zero wear.

I get about 1000 good miles out of a set of wheels. Mine also wear down squarely, not pointy except at the very start of wear. I can push them to 1500 miles but crashing from losing an edge goes way up by then.

Hey, at least I don't play hockey anymore. Could go through three sets of wheels in ONE DAY on asphalt! But I used to get factory blems with no labels for $1 each. Those were the days!

My new quads will save me some $$$ on wheels. They last almost forever. Adding the quads and longboards to my rotation I only have to put new wheels on the blades about once a year. Around $60 US.